Video: Patrol Car Safety

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) -For law enforcement officers the patrol car is a rolling office 12 hours a day.

It’s common to see officers patrolling the streets, but we rarely ever think about them being involved in an accident, but it happens more than you think.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, 29 officers died last year due in automobile accidents.

Within the past, week the Columbus Police Department and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department both had vehicles that were involved in a crash.

“It compacts the driver, and it’s a lot of stuff going on inside the car that the normal driver doesn’t have to deal with,” said Lowndes County Chief Deputy Marc Miley.

Including a cage in the back seat and trying to listen to a police radio while driving.

“You have in car computers, you have radars, you have radio systems, you have GPS navigation systems, while constantly trying to listen to the 911 dispatcher calls from other officers and trying to drive through traffic while running lights and sirens, it can become very distracting,” said Miley.

Not only are those distractions a big problem, the cruisers are also becoming more compact.

“You got to mold yourself to the car and let the car mold itself around you so you can get comfortable in it everyday,” said Miley.

But that can be very uncomfortable, especially for larger officers.

“My problem driving the car is my knees getting up too high, just not enough leg room and head room,” said Miley.

The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department said deer accidents are the most common danger deputies face on the road.

“90 percent of our accidents come from deer wrecks, that’s gonna happen, in the middle of the night deer are out in the middle of the road everywhere and they come out on you,” said Miley.

The Sheriff’s Department has spare cars, in case a cruiser involved in a crash.

Miley said the auto industry is working to give law enforcement more space and make the cage in the back of the cruisers adjustable.